Posted on 10/26/2007 9:00:59 PM PDT by topcat54
Replacement theology has become dispensationalism's latest prophetic boogeyman. If you want to end a debate over eschatology, just charge your opponent with holding to replacement theology. What is “replacement theology,” sometimes called “supersessionism,” and why do dispensationalists accuse non-dispensationalists of holding it? Here’s a typical dispensational definition:
Replacement Theology: a theological perspective that teaches that the Jews have been rejected by God and are no longer God’s Chosen People. Those who hold to this view disavow any ethnic future for the Jewish people in connection with the biblical covenants, believing that their spiritual destiny is either to perish or become a part of the new religion that superseded Judaism (whether Christianity or Islam).1
“Replacement theology” is dispensationalism’s trump card in any debate over eschatology because it implies anti-semitism. Hal Lindsey attempted to use this card in his poorly researched and argued The Road to Holocaust.2 He wove an innovative tale implying that anyone who is not a dispensationalist carries the seeds of anti-semitism within his or her prophetic system. This would mean that every Christian prior to 1830 would have been theologically anti-semitic although not personally anti-semtic.
As Peter Leithart and I point out in The Legacy of Hatred Continues,3 it’s dispensationalists who hold to a form of replacement theology since they believe that Israel does not have any prophetic significance this side of the rapture! Prior to the rapture, in terms of dispensational logic, the Church has replaced Israel. This is unquestionably true since God’s prophetic plan for Israel has been postponed until the prophetic time clock starts ticking again at the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week which starts only after the Church is taken to heaven in the so-called rapture. Until then, God is dealing redemptively with the Church. Am I making this up? Consider the following by dispensationalist E. Schuyler English:
An intercalary4 period of history, after Christ’s death and resurrection and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, has intervened. This is the present age, the Church age. . . . During this time God has not been dealing with Israel nationally, for they have been blinded concerning God’s mercy in Christ. . . . However, God will again deal with Israel as a nation. This will be in Daniel’s seventieth week, a seven-year period yet to come.5
According to English and every other dispensationalist, the Church has replaced Israel until the rapture. The unfulfilled promises made to Israel are not fulfilled until after the Church is taken off the earth. Thomas Ice, one of dispensationalism’s rising stars, admits that the Church replaces Israel this side of the rapture: “We dispensationalists believe that the church has superseded Israel during the current church age, but God has a future time in which He will restore national Israel ‘as the institution for the administration of divine blessings to the world.’”6
Dispensationalists claim that their particular brand of eschatology is the only prophetic system that gives Israel her proper place in redemptive history. This is an odd thing to argue since two-thirds of the Jews will be slaughtered during the post-rapture tribulation, and the world will be nearly destroyed. Charles Ryrie writes in his book The Best is Yet to Come that during this post-rapture period Israel will undergo “the worst bloodbath in Jewish history.”7 The book’s title doesn’t seem to very appropriate considering that during this period of time most of the Jews will die! John Walvoord follows a similar line of argument: “Israel is destined to have a particular time of suffering which will eclipse any thing that it has known in the past. . . . [T]he people of Israel . . . are placing themselves within the vortex of this future whirlwind which will destroy the majority of those living in the land of Palestine.”8 Arnold Fruchtenbaum states that during the Great Tribulation “Israel will suffer tremendous persecution (Matthew 24:15–28; Revelation 12:1–17). As a result of this persecution of the Jewish people, two-thirds are going to be killed.”9
During the time when Israel seems to be at peace with the world, she is really under the domination of the antichrist who will turn on her at the mid-point in the seven-year period. Israel waits more than 2000 years for the promises finally to be fulfilled, and before it happens, two-thirds of them are wiped out. Those who are charged with holding a “replacement theology viewpoint” believe in no inevitable future Jewish bloodbath. In fact, we believe that the Jews will inevitably embrace Jesus as the Messiah this side of the Second Coming. The fulfillment of Zechariah 13:8 is a past event. It may have had its fulfillment in the events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Contrary to dispensationalism’s interpretation of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus' disciples warned the Jewish nation for nearly forty years about the impending judgment (Matt. 3:7; 21:42–46; 22:1–14; 24:15–22). Those who believed Jesus’ words of warning were delivered “from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). Those who continued to reject Jesus as the promised Messiah, even though they had been warned for a generation (Matt. 24:34), “wrath has come upon them to the utmost” (1 Thess. 2:16; cf. 1 Thess. 5:1–11; 2 Pet. 3:10–13).
Before critics of replacement theology throw stones, they need to take a look at their own prophetic system and see its many lapses in theology and logic.
Read Part Two of this article...
2. Hal Lindsey, The Road to Holocaust (New York: Bantam Books, 1989). The address for Bantam Books is 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York.
3. Gary DeMar and Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy of Hatred Continues: A Response to Hal Lindsey’s The Road to Holocaust (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 1989).
4. Inserted into the calendar.
5. E. Schuyler English, A Companion to the New Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), 135.
6. Thomas Ice, “The Israel of God,” The Thomas Ice Collection: www.raptureready.com/featured/TheIsraelOfGod.html#_edn3
7. Charles C. Ryrie, The Best is Yet to Come (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1981), 86.
8. John F. Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1962), 107, 113. Emphasis added.
9. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, “The Little Apocalypse of Zechariah,” The End Times Controversy: The Second Coming Under Attack, eds. Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2003), 262.
It appears that is contrary to what the Lord says
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The blinders of a screwy system hide truth yet again.
The Lord indicates that the coming END TIME TRAUMAS for Israelis and the whole world will be worse than ever has been or ever will be ...
YET ANOTHER PROOF THAT AD70 IS A TOTALLY BANKRUPT EXPLANATION having HOTHING to do with Biblical truth.
Thank you for this engaging sidebar, dear brother in Christ!
You are a blessing to me, sister. Please do not consider any of my comments to you to be more than the suggestions that they are.
So far as infants are concerned, it is clear that ALL SALVATION finds its source in the Lord. It is clear that ALL names in the Lamb’s Book of Life are clearly there and that the Lord sees them.
However, if it appears in Scripture that the Lord gives insight into WHY He has chosen to place deceased infants’ names in that book, then all we can do is weigh whether we are correctly interpreting that as insight.
In terms of “epochs,” “ages,” and “administrations,” there is also insight granted.
We must be people of the book. Any literalists should rejoice in knowing that the root word is “literate.”
As were Luther and Calvin.
Would you not agree that the "heresies" of Calvin and Luther actually led to a better understanding of the truth of scripture?
How do you propose eradicating dispensationalism from the church without eradicating dispensationalists?
God works all things to good for those who Love him. . .
. . . even satan to God’s purposes . . .
that’s not a feather in satan’s cap.
How do you propose eradicating dispensationalism from the church without eradicating dispensationalists?
Changing their minds?
Strictly speaking I guess that would be eliminating dispensationalists, since you'd have one less DP-ist, one more whatever.
AS I’ve seen sooooooooo many
baltant historical and Biblical facts so fiercely denied and ignored . . .
I’ve begun to wonder if dispensationalism etc. is the issue at all.
I increasingly think the issue is REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER in the lives of too many Replacementarians.
When being seen as right—no matter how wrong one’s position is along side the historical and Biblical facts—when being seen as right is far more important than Biblical Truth . . . . something funny is going on.
However, if it appears in Scripture that the Lord gives insight into WHY He has chosen to place deceased infants’ names in that book, then all we can do is weigh whether we are correctly interpreting that as insight.
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. – John 6:63
Welcome Home!
Indeed. My contribution to such discussions is generally this: that we should not impose our mortal reasoning onto the words of God. Which is to say, if something does not make sense to us, the problem is ours not His.
We must be people of the book. Any literalists should rejoice in knowing that the root word is “literate.”
Oh so very true! The words of God are food to us.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. – Matthew 4:4
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. – John 6:63
Praise God!!!
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AMEN T BOTH OF YOU.
You know, this attempt at artifically carving up history into 7 dispensations is irrelevant....
The sacramental tokens of grace began IN Eden. The age of grace began IN Eden. The covenant of grace (between the Father and the Son), instituted BEFORE time began, began to manifest itself IN Eden. The prophecy of redemption in grace for all mankind was first spoken to man IN Eden. The church began IN Eden.
Dispensationalism is a fairy tale. God has always dealt with mankind’s redemption by grace and NEVER by the Law.
1. You know next to nothing about dispensationalism.
2. You think you know everything about dispensationalism.
3. You don’t want to know anything about dispensationalism.
I do think that Bib Chr is onto something, but, of course, I have no idea how much you know about dispensationalism.
However, I do think that those who seem most annoyed by dispensationalists have a tendency in a "preterist" direction.
What is it about dispensationalism, in your opinion, that blocks someone's accepting preterism?
Uh Huh...
And little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating a cherry pie...
Stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plumb and said,
What's a plumb doing in a cherry pie...
But your's was funnier than mine...
Prayer, education, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
So is the current pope. So what?
"I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation." (Psalm 119:99)
It's pretty clear that you didn't even bother to see what that post concerned.
What are the exact scriptures, and I really would like to know
He may be a legend in his own mind, but there are plenty of non-dispensationalists who understand completely** what the system is all about, especially as it is taught in the pop media (as most folks get their knowledge about these things).
However, I do think that those who seem most annoyed by dispensationalists have a tendency in a "preterist" direction.
So what?
I have found it very interesting over the course of the last ten or so years how dispensationalists, previously ignorant of anyone else’s view but their own, have taken off after postmils and preterists with a vengeance.
I was listening to Woodrow Kroll on his Back to the Bible broadcast the other day answer a question about preterism. He was very nice in his response, and made it clear that he disagreed, but I found it quite telling that even Mr. Kroll felt compelled to say something about what appears to be the principle opposing view of dispensationalism. What has him so concerned?
I still contend that folks are growing weary of the mumbo-jumbo and "Jesus is going to return next week" rant, especially those folks who can read their Bible for themselves, and they are leaving dispensationalism for a more biblical eschatology. Some are even becoming more Reformed, and seeing the disconnect between the Bible/Reformed theology and dispensationalism. That leaves them with some flavor of amil/postmil.
** As completely as one can given that dispensationalism changes from week to week, book to book, revision to revision, seminary to seminary, Bible school to Bible school, "no creed but Christ" independent fundamentalist to independent fundamentalist.
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